Garment and method of making the same



Dec. 17, 1940. E. C. KENNEDY 2,224,871

GARMENT AND METHOD 0F MAKING THE SAME Filed July 11, 1939 ZShe-tS-Sheet l .I l Il IIII'IIIH'HMI l bd lNvl-:NTOR ED WARD C'. KENNEDY BY f mls-MLV MA 5 ATTORNEY-5 Dec. 17, 1940. E. c. KENNEDY 2.224,871

GARMENT AND METHOD MAKING THE SKME vFiled July 11, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dee. 11,1940

"3,324,811 GARMENT AND minion or MAKING 'rmi sami v Edward O. Kennedy, N. Y., assignor to Vawne Foundations; Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York 1 Application n iy 1i, 1939, sei-m No. 283,833

- 3 (cines-11e) This invention relates to garments li the cor-fset type for conning and improvingzthefiigure.

It particularly(relates` to a seamless,"onepie'ce-,

shaped, tubular garment of elastic knit material, 5 to4 an improved method of fashioningand an improved method of producing such garments.

Heretofore, in knitting garmentsof this kind, variation inthe tension applied 4to the elastic threads during the knitting of different kportions of the garment, or variation vin the size of the elastic threads employed, have been resorted to `for the purpose of fashioning the garment tothe desired shape, and providing for greater compression of the body by certain portions of. the

garment than by other portions. Also, in mak-tV ing these garments, ydrop-stitching has been employed either in certain predetermined areas, or

continuously around the top of the garment, for

the purpose of narrowing the garment at the top and giving it some semblance of. shape or fashioning. v l Y These garments, however, were all objectionable for one reason lor another. .The fashioning of the lgarments wasinot all 4that could -be desired,

and vthey lwere incapable of being knit rapidly,

probably for the reason that the-drop-stitehinssg was terminated one row at a-time, s: staggered .or sloping design alongr the@tiettoxriesxt';W

the drop-stitching. This design,"nrore'ovin,l was objectionable from the salesstandpoint because in the type of garment having the drop-stitching I arranged in spaced areas, it producedjan un, sightly gathering along the lower edges oi the drop-stitchingl areas, and in the type of garment where the drop-stitching was continued throughout the circumference of its upper portion, an undesirable rib effect was produced.

The object of my present invention is toovercome these objections and providea garment oi this sort'which is capable of being knit very rapidly, and which can be produced at low cost, and yet is of Vsuperior quality. ,v

vIt is also a feature of the invention to provide a garmentv of this kind which tends to properly hold-the abdomen without the `necessity, of einploying a panel of non-stretchable material.

Further, the invention aims to improve the shape of such garments so that they will more comfortably fit vthe figure and. at the same `time improve the lines of the figure. n e

The presentglnvention willv be understood from a *considerationv of the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by wayy oi? example, onel embodiment oi the" invention in the form of a girdle. In these drawings:

1 is a front view of my improved garment; Fig.2is arear view: I a v Fig..f3"is atransverse section on line 3-3 ofV Fig.v1 drawn to an enlarged scale; y

, g. 4 is -a fragmentary view' drawn ,to a still larger scale of the upper portion oi the garment shown in Fig. 1 looking from theinside; y

Fig. 5 is aplan view of a strip of tubular fabric knit in accordance with my invention, containing a plurality of units, each adapted to be severed from the strip to form ya garment; and

Fig. 6 is a magnified view of a fragmentary portion of the knit fabric as shown in Fig. 5. y g ,Referring now to thesedrawings, thev girdle i of my invention comprises a tubular garment, knit on a circular knitting machine, one-piece from top to bottomfand seamless.4 It is knit with an elastic thread(usuallyy consisting of 'a rubber core covered with a textile material, such as cotton, rayon or silk). Usually a cotton-covered rubber thread lis used, together with a second, or ,platingf'threadlofrayon or silk. Thegarment is'finishedalong the bottom and top with tapes .land 3,A and the usual accessories, such as the stockingsupporters ,are attached at the bottom. at its upper marginal plurality of spaced rectangular titoli-stitching. Two .areas 5 and 6 are provided at the backandfare'as A'I vand 8 ,atv the front. Drop-stitching .areas 1 'and 8 'at the -front are preferably narrower than fthose at the back,

Vleavinga;wide panel! of full-bodied fabric between them at the center of the front of the gar-l ment. A narrow panel Ill is provided atthe center of the back of the garment, and two panels l I and I2 of approximately the sameI width as` panel I0 at thesides, panel SAbeing substantially twice Las wide as the other panels. By means of these `rectangular areas lof drop-stitching ywhich extend downwardlyfrom the top of the garment. the .upper lportion of thegarmentis made narrowrso as to vclosely t the'waist,'and the wide panel i of full bodied fabric 'tendsl to improve the shape of theabdomen. method of runningy the dropstitching The areas`5, l, 1 and 8 issthe sameforeach area.v The areas of dropfstitchingare-made up of aphirality oi' closely spaced rows of drop-stitching (Fig. 5)A which` are divided into two, groups com-f prising alternate -and intermediate rows .desig nated respectively by reference characters A and 'B. yBoth of these groups extend downwardly from 1 the upper. margin of the garment for a predetermined distance depending zupon the' character of the garment, particularly upon-the i. flldistance, ii any, which it is desired to have the garment extend above the waistline.

In the iinished garment, for example, the rows of drop-stitching comprising group A may ox- 5 tend approximately three inches from the top of the garment in front, although the distance as the fabric is knitted will be more nearly 41/2 inches. At this point, however, all of the rows of group A terminate simultaneously. The rows comprising group B, however, are continued downward for about another 1% inches in the finished garment, or 11/2 inches in the material as knitted. By abruptly terminating the rows in groups in this manner, each comprising approxi- 15 mately one-half of the total rows of drop-stitching a pleasing outward curve is given to the garment, thereby fashioning the garment to fit neatly over the hips without producing substantial localized excess tension in the elastic threads of the garment.

The diameter of the circularknitting machine upon which the garment is knitted varies with the size of the garment. The machine contains several hundred needles, say, for example, from about 400 to something over 5 00. In the example of the garment shown in the drawings by way of illustration, the needles which are thrown out of action to form the drop-stitching rows of group A of front areas 1 and 8 are each 13 in number, while the corresponding needles for the rows of group B are 12 in number. Hence in the upper portions of each of these drop-stitching areas a total of 25 needles are taken out of action, these needles being spaced approximately 4 wales apart. In the rear drop-stitching areas 5 and 6, 15 needles form the drop-stitching rows of group A, and 14 group B, making a total of 29 needles for each of these areas.

Referring nowto Fig. 5, which serves to illustrate certain of the steps of the method of producing the garment, the tubular fabric is knitted in a continuous strip I3 which is severed, in a manner which will be presently described, into units from which the individual garments are made. In Fig. 5, three of these units I4, l5 and I8 are illustrated. Although Fig. 5 illustrates only the front side of the fabric strip in which the drop-stitching areas 1 and 8 are located, it will be understood that the rear side contains the other drop-stitching areas 5 and 6.

Assuming that the knitting .of a previous unit has been completed, the knitting of unit I4 starts at the point indicated by line I'I, at which point all of the needles in both groups A and B of all of the four areas 1, 8, 5 and 6 (comprising 108 needles) are thrown out of action simultaneously. This causes an -abrupt narrowing of the fabric and a considerable puckering or gathering of the material as indicated at I8. It also leaves a series of free, or unlocked, loops I8 (Fig. 5), one for each needle thrown out of action. Hence there are a total of 108 of lthese unlocked loops along line II at the commencement of the four drop-stitching areas.

The knitting continues with these 108 needles out of action for a distance a which, as indicated above, is approximately 41/2 inches. At this point corresponding to line 20, all of the needles of group A for each of the four areas, comprising a total of 56 needles, are returned to action simultaneously. Hence, as indicated in Fig. 6,these needles again commence forming stitches and 56 wales are restored to the circumference of the garment distributed among the four drop-stitching areas.

Knitting proceeds from this point, with only the needles oi.' groups B out of action, for a distance indicated by b which, as previously stated, is approximately 1% inches. 'Ihen all of these needles, 52 in number, are simultaneously re- 5 stored to action and the knitting is continued to form the lower portion of unit I4, which completes the knitting cycle. It will be understood that-when a suilicient length of4 material has been knitted, all of the needles of groups A and B 10 will again ybe thrown abruptly and simultaneously out of action to commence the knitting of the .succeeding unit I5. By restoring the needles to action in groups simultaneously, unsightly gathering at the bottoms of the rectangular areas of 15 drop-stitching is avoided.

In making up the individual garments from .the continuous strip of material illustrated in Fig. 5, the' strip is severed along the lines II at the points where the unlocked loops I9 are lo- 20 cated. The severing of the material along line II has two effects. First, it permits the material forming the lower portion of the previous garment to expand, eliminating the gathering I8 so as to make the lower portion of the garment 25 substantially circular in form. In the second place, it leaves the unlocked loops I9 adjacent a cut edge so that they may be firmly secured in place to prevent causing runs, by means of the finishing tapes 2 and 3. 30

By means of my present invention there has been provided a seamless one-piece girdle made of knit elastic material which is of extremely ne texture and which still can be knit with great rapidity so as to lower the cost of production to 35 a remarkable extent, this rapid knitting being permitted by controlling the needles forming the drop-'stitching areas in groups comprising substantial quantities of needles each. Thus the needles of groups A and B are taken out of ac- 40 tion all at the same time and then at the desired point the needles of group A are all returned to action together; later on in like manner the needles of groups B are returned lto action simultaneously, thereby forming rectangular areas 45 of drop-stitching spaced around the upper marginal portion of the garment.

By the improved method of fashioning the garment through the employment of these spaced areas of such rectangular drop-stitching, the 50 garment is 'given a more natural shape. By providing the wide panel of full-bodied fabric at the front the garment tends to hold the addomen flat without adding a panel of unstretchable material. 'Ihis can be added, however, if 55 desired.

The fabric of which the garment is made is knit under substantially uniform tension from one end of the garment to the other, and the improved fashioning provides for a maintenance 60 of such uniform tension to a remarkable extent Yeven after the garment isin place upon th wearer.

It will be understood that changes may be made in the construction and procedure de- 65 scribed above without departingr from the spirit of the invention as deiined in the appended claims:

I claim:

1. A seamless, one-piece, shaped, tubular garment formed of knit elastic material under substantially uniform tension throughout and having areas of drop-stitching arranged in spaced relation around the upper portionthereof extending downwardly from the upper margin of 75 Cil the garment, said areas each comprising two groups of rows of ldrop stitching distributed `throughout said areas, the rows of each group being of equalflength and the rows of one group terminating above the bottom of the rows of the other group, thereby fashioning the garment to the hips.

2. A seamless, one-piece, shaped, tubular garment formed of knit elastic material under substantially uniform tension throughout and having areas of drop-stitching spaced around its upper portion in such manner as to leave panels of full-bodied fabric at the sides, said dropstitching areas extending downwardly from the upper margin of the garment and each comprising two groups of equal length rows of drop stitching, one group containing the alternate rows of drop stitching and the other group the intermediate rows, the alternate rows terminating above the bottom ot the intermediate rows, thereby fashioning the garment to the hips.

3. The method of fashioning a tubular garment during knitting which comprises dropping 1 stitches in groups spaced'around the circumference of the garment and knitting circumferentially spaced areas of drop-stitching separated by areas of full-bodied material to form the waist portion of the garment, simultaneously picking up alternate stitches of those dropped in each of said drop stitch areas, continuing the knitting of said alternate areas of drop-stitching and full-bodied fabric, simultaneously picking up the remainder of the stitches dropped, thereby shaping the garment to the hips, and then knittingv circumferentially continuous full bodied fabric to form thefiower portion of the garment.

EDWARD C. KENNEDY. 

